The UN rights mission says the bombing likely violated international law. Russia says it targeted military units.
KOMYSHUVAKHA, Ukraine – The death toll from a Russian bombing of an aid distribution point in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region has risen to 40, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, with more than 30 people feared still under the rubble.
Ivan Fedorov, co-head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Defense Council, said 59 people were missing, Reuters reported. Rescuers, working into a third day, used excavators near a huge blast crater and searched underground. Some bodies have not been identified, and the region declared three days of mourning from Nov. 3 to 5. The toll rose from 18 on Monday to 31, 33 and 37 before reaching 40.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces first dropped aerial bombs on the school’s underground building as people arrived to collect aid, then struck the shelter with more bombs, nine in total. Four police officers were among the dead, and police released body-camera footage showing an officer ushering people into the shelter after a radio warning of incoming guided bombs. Defense intelligence websites say a 3-ton glide bomb carries about 1.4 tons of explosives, Reuters noted.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack targeted Ukrainian military units around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements and that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians. The United Nations human rights mission in Ukraine said Tuesday that the bombing likely violated international law. The school, about 17 kilometers from the nearest Russian positions, had been closed for classes but served as a shelter and aid hub every Monday. “This strike hit a place where a community was organizing help for its own residents,” said Yuliya Stefanyuk, World Central Kitchen’s response director for Ukraine.
The strike came a day after a six-day local ceasefire around Oleshky expired and as Kyiv prepares to attend US-brokered ceasefire talks with Moscow next week. Zelenskyy said it showed Russia does not want de-escalation.
This report draws on information from Reuters, Al Jazeera and the Kyiv Post.